2003 in music. • Page 4

Definitely nothing to be ashamed of there - no one I hung out with at the time heard of them until early 2004-ish. And really, I didn't actually care/believe the hype until I saw the insane crowd that they drew at the side stage Warped Tour 04.

 

Take This to Your Grave is pretty bad imo. Does nothing for me outside of Grand Theft Autumn and chicago. The next one tho.........

 

when I did get my hands on TTTYG, I played the shit out of it....hell 19 years later I'm still playing that album at least once a week.

Cannot believe this album will be 20 years old next year. I want a fucking tour damn it!

 

Same. We must be around the same age. I started college fall of '03. I dont think i've gone a week since that fall without listening to TTTYG. That fall of '03 i dont think i went more than a day.

 

I think it was late 2004 when they started being played on MTV is when I was like "whooooo is thisss?!?!" and immediately fell in love with Wentz

 

I like Crazy In Love, not just because it gives me the excuse to post this great old track it sampled.

 

1. Cursive - The Ugly Organ
2. Jay Z - The Black Album
3. The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium
4. Thrice - The Artist in the Ambulance
5. Thursday - War All the Time

 

Listening to the crowing right now, Coheed might be the weirdest/most unexpectedly successful band of my entire life to this point haha. I don't want to say it doesn't hold up but I definitely feel like you might have had to be there, at least as far as picturing what my thoughts would be discovering them in 2022

 

it's their best album

 

Jay Z- The Black Album
Outkast- Speaker/Love Below
50 Cent- Get Rich or Die Tryin'

 

1. Blink-182 - untitled
2. Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism
3. Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
4. The Postal Service - Give Up
5. Muse - Absolution

 

while I completely agree with you, I just don't understand how you can say things like this but go hog wild against Tell All Your Friends

 

well steve one album holds up very well and the other sounds like absolute dogshit

 

TTTYG is really bad.

 

TTTYG fuckin rules

 

TTTYG is okay.

 

1. Thrice - The Artist in the Ambulance
2. Mew - Frengers
3. Linkin Park - Meteora

Shouts out to Thursday, Radiohead, coheed, postal service, deftones, linkin park

 

1. Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism
2. Thrice - The Artist in the Ambulance
3. Linkin Park - Meteora
The first two are all timers. 3 not as into it now but it does hold up. When I found it however, game changer.

 

1. Macho Man Randy Savage - Be a Man


2. Jealous Sound - Kill them with Kindness
3. Mad Caddies - Just One More

Honorable Mention

None More Black - File Under Black
Less than Jake - Anthem
Rx Bandits - The Resignation
Streetlight Manifesto - Everything Goes Num
The Lawrence Arms - Greatest Story
Strike Anywhere - Exit English

 

1. Muse - Absolution
2. Thrice - The Artist in the Ambulance
3. Biffy Clyro - The Vertigo of Bliss

 

All the way down and Diary of Always are two of the best Biffy songs.

 

i love thrice but have never gotten this album. always been one of my least favorites of theirs

 

I could probably have put the Biffy album in my other mentions but it's been ages since I listened to it. Liberate The Illiterate was always my favourite.

 

1. Coheed and Cambria - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
2. The Weakerthans - Reconstruction Site
3. Something Corporate - North

Excruciating cuts:
Brand New - Deja Entendu
Fall Out Boy - Take This to Your Grave
Mandy Moore - Coverage
The Postal Service - Give Up
Warren Zevon - The Wind
Eve 6 - It's All in Your Head

Others I love:
The Early November - The Room's Too Cold
Explosions in the Sky - The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place
Seal - IV
The Format - Interventions and Lullabies
Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism
Copeland - Beneath Medicine Tree
A.F.I. - Sing the Sorrow
Thursday - War All the Time
Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers
Rob Dougan - Furious Angels
Michelle Branch - Hotel Paper
The Black Keys - Thickfreakness
Dangermouse and Jemini - Ghetto Pop Life
Dave Matthews - Some Devil

Good ones:
John Mayer - Heavier Things
Motion City Soundtrack - I Am the Movie
The Mars Volta - De-loused in the Comatorium
Thrice - The Artist in the Ambulance
Limbeck - Hi, Everything's Great
The New Amsterdams - Worse for the Wear
Blink 182 - Blink 182
Stars - Heart
Finger Eleven - Finger Eleven
Metallica - St. Anger
Snow Patrol - Final Straw
Jessica Andrews - Now
Zolof the Rock and Roll Destroyer - Jalopy Go Far
Evanescence - Fallen
Ben Harper - Diamonds on the Inside
Jay-Z - The Black Album
Fleetwood Mac - Say You Will
Outkast - Speakerboxx/The Love Below
Sevendust - Seasons
Deftones - Deftones
Anberlin - Blueprints for the Black Market
Funeral for a Friend - Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation
Dan Fogelberg - Full Circle
Saves the Day - In Reverie
Rufio - MCMLXXXV
Iron and Wine - The Sea and the Rhythm EP
Armor for Sleep - Dream to Make Believe
Amy Winehouse - Frank
Me'shell Ndegocello - Comfort Woman
The White Stripes - Elephant
Dashboard Confessional - A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar
Third Eye Blind - Out of the Vein
Story of the Year - Page Avenue
Spitalfield - Remember Right Now
Elliott - Song in the Air
Al Green - I Can't Stop
Annie Lennox - Bare
Alicia Keys - The Diary of Alicia Keys
Josh Rouse - 1972
Saosin - Translating the Name EP
Silverstein - When Broken Is Easily Fixed
Mae - Destination: Beautiful
Fairweather - Lusitania
The Early November - Acoustic EP
King Geedorah - Take Me to Your Leader
Hoobastank - The Reason
Brandi Carlile - We're Growing Up

Not a fan:
Dream Theater - Train of Thought
Arcade Fire - Arcade Fire EP
Rainer Maria - Long Knives Drawn
Songs: Ohia - Magnolia Electric Company
Acceptance - Black Lines to Battlefields EP
Stereomud - Every Given Moment
Staind - 14 Shades of Grey
Unjust - Glow

Targets for Listening:
A Perfect Circle - Thirteenth Step
Alien Ant Farm - TruANT
Alexisonfire - Alexisonfire
Azure Ray - Hold on Love
Brother Ali - Shadows on the Sun
Cold - Year of the Spider
Kevin Devine - Make the Clocks Move
Everclear - Slow Motion Daydream
Every Time I Die - Hot Damn!
Further Seems Forever - How to Start a Fire
Gatsbys American Dream - Ribbons and Sugar
The Jealous Sound - Kill Them with Kindness
Kids in the Way - Safe from the Losing Fight
Kings of Leon - Youth and Young Manhood
The National - Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers
Park - It Won't Snow Where You're Going
Josh Ritter - Hello Starling
The Rocket Summer - Calendar Days
The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
Yellowcard - Ocean Avenue
Zwan - Mary Star of the Sea
50 Cent - Get Rich or Die Tryin'
Calexico - Feast of Wire
The Darkness - Permission to Land
Dizzee Rascal - Boy in Da Corner
The Thrills - So Much for the City
Rufus Wainwright - Want One
The Strokes - Room on Fire
The Wrens - The Meadowlands
Drive-By Truckers - Decoration Day
Cave In - Antenna
Nada Surf - Let Go
Rise Against - Revolutions per Minute
The Shins - Chutes too Narrow
M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
Bear vs. Shark - Right Now, You're in the Best of Hands...
Cursive - The Ugly Organ
Mew - Frengers
Linkin Park - Meteora
The Movielife - 40 Hour Train Back To Penn
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell

 

1. Dashboard Confessional – A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar
2. Death Cab for Cutie – Transatlanticism
3. John Mayer – Heavier Things

A Mark, A Mission is, for me, the peak Dashboard album. Maintains a lot of the intimacy and angsty charm of the early records while blowing the songs up into massive, epic rock songs. “Hands Down,” “Bend and Not Break,” and “Several Ways to Die Trying” are all, imo, very near the top of the GOAT emo songs list. Also, shouts to the most Herculian high note in emo history at the end of “Several Ways.”

Similarly, Transatlanticism pairs Ben Gibbard’s unique authorial voice with melodies and arrangements that make his songs about heartbreak and distance and coming-of-age sound like blockbuster films. That middle run of “Tiny Vessels,” “Transatlanticism,” and “Passenger Seat” is visceral, moving stuff, and capping the album with “A Lack of Color,” one of the most gutting breakup songs of all time, is just the cherry on top.

Heavier Things is the first CD I ever bought with my own money is might be, because of that, the album I’ve heard most in my life. I spent the entire fall of 2003 listening to this album 1-3 times per day. Mayer eventually transcended this brand of clean-cut teen pop, and some of the songs on this album have aged oddly (“Daughters,” especially, is a little tough from the vantage point of 2022), but Heavier Things also has some of his sharpest hooks (“Bigger Than My Body”), a pantheon breakup song (“Split Screen Sadness”), and his best album closer (“Wheel”).

Tough cuts:

Third Eye Blind – Out of the Vein: Never got the credit it deserved, but it’s stacked with incredible hooks and sneakily devastating lyrics about the dissolution of Stephan Jenkins’ relationship with Charlize Theron. “Blinded,” ins particular, is so incredibly catchy and so utterly crushing.

Something Corporate – North: The first Andrew McMahon album I ever heard, and one I prize very fondly as a result. A true classic of teen angst, with some of the most evocative piano work of Andrew’s career. See “As You Sleep.”

Snow Patrol – Final Straw: I associate this one more with 2004, since that’s when it got a U.S. release and when things really started happening for them. “Run” is one of the songs that really kick-started my obsession with music.

Yellowcard – Ocean Avenue: The sound of summer. A lot of pop-punk albums capture a piece of summer. Ocean Avenue captures the whole damn thing. “Back Home” is one of the five greatest “night before summer ends” songs of all time.

Sister Hazel – Chasing Daylight: Speaking of summer soundtracks, this is this first album I recall describing that way. Radiant, hook-filled roots-pop anthems like “Your Mistake,” “Come Around,” and “Effortlessly,” plus some all-timer yearning-for-what’s-gone ballads (“Best I’ll Ever Be” is a song I’ll always adore) make this one a nostalgic gut punch for me.

I also really love:

Guster – Keep It Together: After years of making music together, Guster finally made some hits. “Amsterdam” is a minor, mostly forgotten radio jam, but damn is it infectious. The album has a bunch of those (“Careful,” “Homecoming Queen,” “Keep It Together”), as well as a centerpiece ballad with one of the best crescendo payoffs I’ve ever heard (“Come Downstairs and Say Hello”).

Matt Nathanson – Beneath These Fireworks: Matt was always talented, but his albums before this one sound rough and low budget. Here, he finally got the money to make an album worthy of his songwriting skill. His greatest accomplishments are still a few years off, but there are some truly wonderful breakup songs on here, particularly “Curve of the Earth,” “Bent,” and “I Saw.”

Michelle Branch – Hotel Paper: Not quite as stacked with hits as The Spirit Room, but equally great. “Breathe” is one of my favorite running songs.

Switchfoot – The Beautiful Letdown: Bought this album in the summer of 2004 and played the hell out of it. Still takes me back to that era. These guys had a knack for writing massive, massive rock songs (“Meant to Live,” “Dare You to Move,” “This Is Your Life”) and really lovely ballads (“On Fire,” “24”).

Vertical Horizon – Go: Everything You Want tends to be the only Vertical Horizon record that anyone talks about, since it generated the hits. But I prefer this one. Just really tight pop-rock songwriting, including an absolutely dynamite A side.

Honorables:

The Postal Service – Give Up: Ben Gibbard really had a dynamite year, didn’t he?

Will Hoge – Blackbird on a Lonely Wire: Hoge levels up on this one, with some terrific roots rock songs like “Secondhand Heart” and “Better Off Now That You’re Gone” that would have been hits in the ‘90s.

Wheat – Per second, Per Second, Per Second…Every Second: Big, yearning alt-rock, with the year’s most infectious should-have-been-smash, “I Met a Girl.”

The Ataris – So Long, Astoria: Surprised this one hasn’t gotten more shouts in here. A wistful pop-punk classic that predicts a lot of the outright nostalgia that bands like The Wonder Years and The Menzingers would build their brands on. Some genre all-timers here, especially “In This Diary,” the title track, and “Looking Back on Today.”

Blink-182 – Untitled: Some extra maturity does Blink a favor, imbuing songs like “Always,” “I Miss You,” and “I’m Lost without You” with extra sweep and urgency without toppling into AVA levels of ridiculousness.

Copeland – Beneath Medicine Trees: Played through this one a few weeks ago for the first time in ages; it holds up! “California,” especially, is one of the genre’s oft-forgotten classics.

The Format – Interventions & Lullabies: Goddamn, “The First Single” should have been a MASSIVE hit.

Fountains of Wayne – Welcome Interstate Managers: Funny, quirky, catchy, and heartfelt. “Stacy’s Mom” remains a cartoonish jam, an “All Kinds of Time” is a songwriting master class.

Gavin DeGraw – Chariot: I loved this album back in the day. A lot of it doesn’t hold up all that well, but the huge singles (“I Don’t Want to Be,” “Chariot”) are nice little slices of nostalgia, and DeGraw definitely had a knack for the piano ballad (“More Than Anyone,” “Belief”).

Howie Day – Stop All the World Now: Everyone knows “Collide,” which is a pretty prime bit of early 2000s radio rock balladry. But I like the parts of the album where Day (who has some Bono in his voice) goes for big widescreen arena rock dramatics (“Come Lay Down”).

Jason Mraz – Waiting for My Rocket to Come: I can’t believe they let him name his album that. Mraz would eventually lose me entirely, but he’s an undeniable talent with a terrific voice, showcased here on songs like “You and I Both” and “Absolutely Zero.”

Jesse Malin – The Fine Art of Self-Destruction: “Brooklyn,” from this album, is one of the era’s lost classics. Give it a listen.

Matthew Ryan – Regret Over the Wires: “Return to Me,” the opening track from this album, is legitimately one of my favorite songs ever.